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Police respond to pro-Palestine encampment at BU
Demonstrators briefly occupied an area near a BU student center before dispersing on Monday night.
Police officers responded to the campus of Boston University Monday, dispersing a group of pro-Palestine demonstrators attempting to set up an encampment there.
The protest was organized by multiple activist groups in an effort to draw attention to the war in Gaza and the ongoing humanitarian crisis unfolding there. On Tuesday, an independent commission set up by the United Nations’ Human Rights Council concluded that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. The finding comes as Israel launches a new offensive into Gaza City.
The demonstrators attempted to occupy the area around George Sherman Union, a BU student center located on Commonwealth Avenue. In social media posts, they rejected the building’s name and instead labeled it the “Anas Al-Sharif Union” in honor of a Palestinian journalist killed by Israeli forces last month.
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“We will transform this space into a base for struggle, collective education, and resistance against the institutions that fund, legitimize, and profit from genocide,” student activists wrote in an Instagram post.
The group formerly known as Boston University Students for Justice in Palestine called for the university to divest from Zionist groups, an “academic boycott of all complicity institutions and companies,” amnesty for students and staff involved in protest activities, and a rejection of ICE agents operating on campus.
Activists convened outside the building at 5 p.m. Monday, setting up tents and displaying large banners with protest art. By nightfall, they documented a growing police presence and wrote on social media that police were threatening to arrest demonstrators.
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Later in the night, the group confirmed that their encampment dispersed.
“Our encampment has ended but this is just one battle in a greater fight for Disclosure, Divestment, and a Liberated Palestine,” they wrote. “Students were threatened with mass arrest by BUPD, BPD, Brookline PD, and Mass State Troopers in just 3 hours.”
When contacted Tuesday, a Boston Police Department spokesperson said only that officers responded to the area to help the Boston University Police Department with a group of protesters at about 5:30 p.m. There were no arrests made.
Spokespeople for BU and BUPD did not return requests for comment Tuesday.
NBC10 Boston captured the scene in videos posted to social media.
In the spring of 2024, pro-Palestine encampments were set up around the region by student activists. Hundreds of people were detained as police cleared demonstrations at Emerson College, Northeastern University, and UMass Amherst and elsewhere.
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